Originally posted by GRUNHERZ He showed up at the US embassy in Beirut..Interesting..
From the St. Petersburg TimesMeanwhile Thursday, a gunbattle broke out in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli between members of Hassoun's clan and people accusing them of being American collaborators, Lebanese security and hospital officials said.
July 11, 2004Marine's Kin Defends Son to Fellow Arabs[/url]They live in America, but don't get the wrong idea: that doesn't mean they have any loyalty to it. Loyalty to Islam comes first; Wassef Ali Hassoun's family has a lot of 'splainin' to do, and they're doing it. Can you remember the last time that the family of a United States Marine felt compelled to apologize for their son's service? I can't. Here, then, is an insight into the Muslim mindset regarding loyalties and service to a non-Muslim nation -- particularly the Great Satan. From AP, with thanks to Roxanne:BEIRUT, Lebanon - Relatives of a U.S. Marine who surfaced in Beirut nearly three weeks after an apparent kidnapping in Iraq appealed for understanding from fellow Arabs on Saturday, saying the Lebanese-born man emigrated and joined the Marines for financial reasons. Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun was doing well and recovering at a U.S. military hospital in Germany after being flown out of Lebanon on Friday, a Marine spokesman said. He is expected to return to his home unit in Camp Lejeune, N.C., next week. In Hassoun's native city of Tripoli, his family issued a statement saying he was forced to go to the United States and join the Marines because of the deteriorating economic situation caused by Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. The statement appeared aimed at countering criticism by some fundamentalist Sunni Muslims in Tripoli who accused Hassoun's family of being "American agents and collaborators." It stressed the family's Arab and Islamic ties, and its loyalty to Lebanon. "We are a family of Lebanese Arab Muslims. We are not seeking to defend ourselves," the Hassoun family's statement said. "But we would like to thank the Lebanese for sympathizing with one of their sons (Hassoun) who was pushed by the difficult living conditions in their home country to emigrate and forced to work in a position that they may not like." The statement said Hassoun, 24, was "driven by the lure of a good life to emigrate, (but he) might have made a mistake by choosing to sign a four-year contract with the U.S. Navy, which expires by the end of 2005."
